Market research with teenagers is showing that “the defining issue facing Gen Z is social equality.”[1]

Beyond being just concerned about it, it is a real motivator in their actions. It is a defining issue that they believe they can solve to shape how the world works and how business is done.

In a few years, they are the voters and consumers. They genuinely have the capacity to make change happen to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their communities.

I’m finding when I chat to teenagers that there is a wonderful openness and inclusion around gender, race, sexuality; a hope for communities to be whole and a puzzlement that they are not. For some, the community spaces on the internet are real contributors for promoting this equality.

Ask your children and youth about their thoughts on equality – globally and in their community?

What does it mean to them? What do they want to see happen? What are the causes that they see occur most commonly in their community? Make a discussion wall.

The SDGs come to life when we recognise them at the most local of levels in the places that we live; opening up the opportunities to solve them.

You will also be opening up the spaces of empathy and compassion – key elements of the problem-solving mindset that we need to empower our young people with.